Aw yeah. You can cross Jak II off the list. I finished the game at 102% in 26 hours. I know, I know, that seems a little long, but what can I say? I had a few cheap deaths, mostly due to my impatience (and occasional sucking at certain portions of the game). Still, I'm glad I finished the game. It's such a tiny achievement, but for nerds like us there really is nothing like the feeling of beating a game. Aw yeah.

Time for some likes/dislikes!

Likes:

Better than decent story. Likable characters. Good voice acting.

Variety of missions/gameplay.

The fact that Naughty Dog changed their formula from the first game so much, and it worked.

Dislikes:

Getting around Haven City is a pain. It's almost too big? You don't get the hover board soon enough.

The "citizens" of Haven City always manage to get in my way, both on the street and in the air.

Any racing mission.

All in all, it was certainly an enjoyable experience. I honestly can't wait to finish Jak 3 because I want to know what happens to these characters, and to see if they fixed the problems I had with Jak II. The backlog is getting smaller one game at a time.

Jak II is going well. According to the game I am 58% complete at about 16 hours of game time. I would probably be further (or finished by now), but alas, something else has been eating my time. That something else is a brand new PS3 and inFamous 2. The lack of new games for Wii and an attractive price swayed my decision to jump in and become a multi-system owner this generation, and I couldn't be happier. So happy, in fact, that I want to finish inFamous 2 as soon as I can. I am just having too much fun with that game.

I've also decided to start plowing through Super Mario Galaxy 2, and yeah, it's harder than the first Galaxy, but the sense of accomplishment when you finally snag a not-so-easy-star is always awesome. Galaxy 2 deserves all the praise it gets and more. I doubt I will ever get all 242 stars,but hope springs eternal. As of this writing I have 28 stars through about 8-9 hours of game time.

So I've decided to crack open this MyIGN blog with a purpose. Like any self-respecting gamer, I have amassed a huge game backlog over the years. Huge. I plan to use this blog to chronicle my quest to make that backlog ever so smaller and my experiences on the way. Hopefully by blogging about this, it will keep me motivated and accountable. I've just got too many games that deserve to be played and finished, many of which haven't even been played once. Yeah, I know. First up, this game:

Jak II!

I finished the first Jak and Daxter years ago, and I enjoyed it very much. At the time I didn't think anyone not named Nintendo could make a decent platformer, but I was wrong. So I was really excited when Jak II was released. It didn't grab me right away, though. The weapons, the city, the mission style, the GTA-fication of the game was a bit jarring to me back then. I didn't hate it, but it eventually found itself in the backlog pile. But I know Naughty Dog are very talented developers, and I am ready to kick off my backlog battle with this gem.

So join me on my backlog journey, because I'm sure you've got a backlog, too. We buy games so that they can be played, right? Let's make some progress, and I'll keep you posted!